Tennessee State Senator Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) made news last week for a shocking interview he gave on Sirius XM’s Michelangelo Signorile Show. In the episode, the pea-brained politico, a sponsor of the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill said that homosexuality was dangerous, that it was “virtually impossible” to contract AIDS through heterosexual sex and that the HIV epidemic came from a gay airline employee having sex with a monkey.

WBIR 10 NBC in Knoxville decided to check back with Senator Campfield to get some clarification. (See clip above). In it, Campfield claims his comments were taken out of context, but that they’re basically factual.

“I didn’t say I was a gay/AIDS historian. I didn’t say I know the facts backwards and forwards I just said what I’ve heard and the facts back me up,” he said.

So all those straight people in Africa who contracted HIV stepped on dirty needles? You know what we do when we don’t know the facts backwards and forwards, Senator? We keep our fucking mouth shut. Just a thought.

“A lot of people trying to gloss over and say it’s an every-person disease but really it’s just those high-risk people that are most likely to contract or spread that disease. “The odds of a regular man getting it from a regular woman are very low,” he said.

We asked, “What do you mean by ‘regular?'”

He said, “someone who is not from Africa, someone who is not a homosexual, someone who is not an IV drug user, someone who is not sleeping with someone who is one of those things.”

Does that mean that there was nothing wrong or dangerous about being gay prior to 1981, Senator Campfield, since there was no AIDS then? We’re not sure—we’re not a gay/AIDS historian.

these fuckwits keep coming out of the woodwork! the scary thing is he really beleives the story about the trolley dolly and the monkey! scary indeed!

Jan 30, 2012 at 8:00 am · @Reply ·

J

Africans aren’t “regular” people? Wow, so he’s also a racist.

Jan 30, 2012 at 8:46 am · @Reply ·

Maria

What a disgrace! I’m horrified that he represents me and TN in ANY way. Small minded, incorrect, nit-wit. Vomit.

Jan 30, 2012 at 8:57 am · @Reply ·

doug105

Counting down till GOProud says we’re taking it the wrong way….

Jan 30, 2012 at 9:34 am · @Reply ·

Isaac C

When gay and bisexual men (MSM), who represent only about 2% of the population, account for 61% of new HIV+ cases, yes, it can pretty much be seen as a gay disease.

Instead of clutching pearls in faux outrage at the Senator’s remarks, maybe some honesty about the pandemic in the U.S. is necessary. Especially since it hasn’t changed since the 80s and in fact has only gotten worse.

Jan 30, 2012 at 10:11 am · @Reply ·

FreddyMertz

Lesbians get it less…they’re homosexual..right?…”…one of those things”. wow. Oh and one of the highest rates of new infections are elderly women. There WILL be a cure for AIDS/HIV…but regrettably no cure for stupidity.

@Isaac C: Gay men do not constitute 60% of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in America — it’s hetero black men & women who make up 60% of new cases. While it might be true that in San Fran and NYC it’s more 50-50% — it’s also true that in most of the nation, say the South, it’s 60-40 hetero already, and rapidly moving to all hetero. Meanwhile, there’s nothing inherent in gayness that leads to AIDS, and indeed, while in the early 1980s it was near 99% gay men in America, gays with HIV have continued to decline, while the hetero portion has gone up. Meanwhile, in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, ie. the rest of the world, heteros are more like 95% of new & old cases while gays are barely 5 to 10 percent. Since it’s a world wide disease, and not only in America, one must count the world, and not just San Fran or NYC to make the claim you make, which is just false. And no doubt, as the numbers have shifted here in the USA one can see the trend that by oh, 2050, it’ll be a near 90% hetero issue, and not gay at all.

Furthermore, there are many diseases which are ethno-specific, for instance: Tay-Sachs for Jews, Lupus and Sickle Cell Anemia for African-heritage people. But one would hardly go on a discriminatory Jew or Black bashing because of this. Strangely, by your logic, even if HIV was a strictly gay disease, would it not then point to a clear genetic reason for both gayness and the disease, along the lines of Tay-Sachs, etc? Even more amazing, Lyme and Legionaires, and most pneumonias, diseases are White-Hetero diseases, and more hetero male than women, and are far more prevalent than HIV, and thus, what are hetero men doing to the health of the nation? Really, sir, get your facts and logic straight, and leave off the gay bashing.

Jan 30, 2012 at 10:57 am · @Reply ·

Fitz

Thank God we got it first! Sure, it devastated us (and continues to), but we responded with compassion, demands for treatment modalities, research plans, and legal protections. We INVENTED the current concept of “Wrap around Case Management” and re-invented community support in a way not seen since visiting nurses in WWII.
If the denial-proud crowd had gotten hit first, the human population might be insignificant by now. Those people take forEVER to make any kind of change, even in the face of science. Look at smoking, or obesity. How well has middle American dealt with that compared to how well we dealt with HIV?

And oh yeah, as for Mr. Campbell — well, when one is a fey & gay boyish looking unmarried 40-something man named Stacey, I dare say he’s got some psychological issues that are unresolved. Somehow, Freudian analysis of his problem with his parents for having given him a name that is 99% of the time a woman’s name is probably required. One can imagine the “teasing” aka bullying that this man endured in school by the Bob’s, Jim’s and John’s of his class for being named Stacey. Alas, he has not learned from his all too probable experience of his early years.

Jan 30, 2012 at 11:02 am · @Reply ·

Mike UK

@Jim Hlavac: those who shout the loudest tend to have the most to hide!!!

Jan 30, 2012 at 11:10 am · @Reply ·

tjr101

There are actually people dumb enough to vote for this guy? Way to go Tennessee, no wonder you’re a fly over state!

Jan 30, 2012 at 11:22 am · @Reply ·

Elmwood Mac

Where do you find these people.

Jan 30, 2012 at 12:18 pm · @Reply ·

Isaac C

@Jim Hlavac: Sorry, but as it relates to gays and this disease in the West, you’re simply full of shit.

Any search will show that gays and bisexuals (MSM) – regardless of race – continue to contract HIV at the highest rate, and whether these men are closeted or not. The 61% percentage I wrote came from a finding as recent as 2009. But I guess your mind, pointing to the realities of the ongoing AIDS crisis somehow means a person is “gay-bashing.” Really, it’s bs perspectives like yours that continue to defeat important discussions about the prevalence of this disease and why the situation simply has not improved since the 80s. At best, what you wrote about gays and HIV is deceptive. At worst, you’re intentionally lying.

Jan 30, 2012 at 2:21 pm · @Reply ·

EmmaMTF

Holy. Fucking. Shit. She even tries to walk him through his logical incompetence by baiting him questions, but he can’t manage anything but a cow-eyed stare. Fuck this shit, I’m moving the Lappland.

Jan 30, 2012 at 2:31 pm · @Reply ·

ChrisC

@Isaac C: What are you: A homophobic “straight” Man pretending to be Gay? Or, a self-hating Gay Man? Regardless of which of the two you are, it’s creepy and sad.

Jan 30, 2012 at 2:44 pm · @Reply ·

Kenny

White homophobia.

Jan 30, 2012 at 3:06 pm · @Reply ·

SebX

This bigoted twat who represents the majority of Tennessee actually believes that patient zero was American!? For fuck’s sake! Africa had been infested long before it reached the developed countries, but since nobody in those places give a rat’s ass about the african low-quality standards of life nobody knew it.

And he doesn’t have to know anything he talks about, it’s just his opinion, and sees nothing wrong with that while being a representative of his people!? I thought my third world country was filled with embarrasingly ingorant idiots, but US is not really that much better with gyus like this in the government.

Jan 30, 2012 at 4:43 pm · @Reply ·

jstwondering

Wow what a freaken dumb ass, african’s aren’t “regular people”? LMAO I wanna know how he’ll try to spin out of that comment XD